Audio Call Screening for Hosted Voicemail Systems

ABSTRACT

The present invention allows a user to screen messages being left at a hosted voicemail system from a telephone terminal. Incoming calls intended for the telephone terminal are routed to the voicemail system immediately or after attempting to connect incoming call to the telephone terminal. As the caller is leaving a message at the voicemail system, a connection between the incoming call, voicemail system, and telephone terminal is established to allow the user to listen to the message and decide whether to take the call. The user may decide to take the call or let the caller finish leaving the message. In one embodiment, the telephone terminal is equipped to open only the speaker channel for monitoring the message and will provide a fully bi-directional connection if the user takes the call. The supporting switch and telephone terminal communicate with each other to facilitate the monitoring and taking of calls.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telephony communications, and inparticular to allowing a user to screen calls by listening to avoicemail message being left in a hosted voicemail system from atelephone device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephone users with personal telephone answering devices can listen tocallers leaving messages thereon, and during the call, decide to takethe call. This highly desirable technique for screening calls isunavailable in hosted voicemail systems, because the voicemail system isa separate entity in the telephone network and is not directlyassociated with any individual's telephone device. In a hosted voicemailsystem, incoming calls that are not answered are forwarded to thevoicemail system. Since many users, especially residential users, relyon the ability to screen calls, service providers with hosted voicemailsystems are at a competitive disadvantage when trying to market hostedvoicemail services to their subscribers. Accordingly, there is a need toprovide call screening for users subscribing to hosted voicemailservices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention allows a user to screen messages being left at ahosted voicemail system from a telephone terminal. Incoming callsintended for the telephone terminal are routed to the hosted voicemailsystem immediately or after attempting to connect incoming call to thetelephone terminal. As the caller is leaving a message at the hostedvoicemail system, a connection between the incoming call, the hostedvoicemail system, and the telephone terminal is established to allow theuser to listen to the message and decide whether to take the call. Theuser may decide to take the call or let the caller finish leaving themessage. In one embodiment, the telephone terminal is equipped to openonly the speaker channel for monitoring the message and will provide afully bi-directional connection using a microphone channel and thespeaker channel if the user takes the call. Further, the supportingswitch and the telephone terminal may communicate with each other tofacilitate the monitoring and taking of calls.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentinvention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of the invention, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a block representation of a communication environmentaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary call flow according to a firstembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary call flow according to a secondembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary call flow according to a thirdembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary call flow according to a fourthembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block representation of a voicemail system according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 is a block representation of a telephone terminal according toone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block representation of a telephony switch according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustratethe best mode of practicing the invention. Upon reading the followingdescription in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilledin the art will understand the concepts of the invention and willrecognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressedherein. It should be understood that these concepts and applicationsfall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.

The present invention provides for audio call screening for hostedvoicemail systems. In essence, a user will subscribe to a hostedvoicemail system, which is a voicemail system located remotely from hertelephone terminal and generally supported or provided by her telephoneservice provider or other servicing entity. In these hosted voicemailsystems, unanswered calls are directed to the hosted voicemail system,where messages for the user may be left. Unfortunately, the remotenature of the voicemail system does not allow the user to listen to themessage being left and make a decision about whether to answer the callbased thereon.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary communication environment 10 isshown centered about a telephone network 12, such as the Public SwitchedTelephone Networks (PSTN) or other wired or wireless telephony network,wherein a switch 14 supports a telephone terminal 16 through wired orwireless means. The switch 14 may be central to a central officeexchange, private branch exchange, mobile switching center, orpacket-based telephone system. A hosted voicemail system (VMS) 18 isshown in association with the telephone terminal 16 and is operativelycoupled to the switch 14 directly or indirectly via the telephonenetwork 12 in traditional fashion.

The following description highlights several embodiments wherein theuser of the telephone terminal 16 can effectively screen incoming callsby listening to messages being left in the VMS 18 and have the option ofanswering the call while a voicemail message is being left by the callerin the VMS 18. A first embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 2. Initially,an incoming call intended for the telephone terminal 16 is received bythe switch 14 (step A), which takes the necessary steps to cause thetelephone terminal 16 to ring (step B). If the call to the telephoneterminal 16 is not answered after a select number of rings, the switch14 will forward the call to the VMS 18 (step C). In this embodiment, theswitch 14 will recognize that the user of the telephone terminal 16 hassubscribed to a call screening service, and will create a conference orother appropriate connection to the telephone terminal 16, and send amessage or signal to the telephone terminal 16 to open a speaker channel(step D). The conference connection effectively connects the caller, theVMS 18, and the telephone terminal 16, such that both the VMS 18 and thetelephone terminal 16 receive any audio content provided by the caller.The speaker channel will effectively allow the telephone terminal 16 toprovide any audio appearing on the connection to be presented at thetelephone terminal speaker, such that the user may listen to the callerleaving a voicemail message.

If the user answers the telephone terminal 16 while the caller isleaving a voicemail message, the switch 14 will detect the telephoneterminal 16 being answered through in-band or out-of-band signaling(step E), and send a message to the VMS 18 indicative of the call beinganswered by the user (step F). The message sent to the VMS 18 may be aRelease message having a cause value that indicates why the Releasemessage was sent. Further, the Release message may provide additionalinformation instructing the VMS 18 how to handle the voicemail messagefragment that was recorded prior to the user answering the call. In themeantime, the caller and user may continue with the call over theconference connection with the telephone terminal 16. This embodiment isconsidered a passive call screening technique, because the user mayscreen the call without any interaction with the telephone terminal 16.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a second embodiment implementing passive callscreening is illustrated. Initially, an incoming call intended for thetelephone terminal 16 is received at the switch 14 (step A), which isconfigured to forward all incoming calls directly to the VMS 18 (stepB), without attempting to establish a connection to the telephoneterminal 16. Upon answering the forwarded incoming call, the VMS 18 willinitiate a call to the telephone terminal 16 (step C) and take thenecessary steps to effectively connect the incoming call and the newlyinitiated call (step D). Such connection may be any type of conferencingtechnique, which may include bridging the two calls in the VMS 18 or theswitch 14, or instructing the switch 14 to establish a three-way callbetween the caller, VMS 18, and telephone terminal 16. During thisperiod, the VMS 18 will answer the incoming call and take the necessarysteps to prepare for recording a message from the caller.

The switch 14 will recognize that the call intended for the telephoneterminal 16 is from the VMS 18, which is providing a call screeningservice, and instead of forwarding the call to the VMS 18 like all otherincoming calls, will take the necessary steps to cause the telephoneterminal 16 to ring (step E). The telephone terminal 16 willautomatically answer calls after a set number of rings, andautomatically open the speaker channel to allow the user to listen to amessage being left by the caller on the VMS 18. If the user does notanswer the telephone terminal 16, the VMS 18 will record the message intraditional fashion. If the user answers the telephone terminal 16, asignal or other message is directly or indirectly sent to the VMS 18(step F) to alert the VMS 18 that the telephone terminal 16 has beenanswered. Further, the telephone terminal 16 will turn on any necessarymicrophones to allow full bi-directional communication. In oneembodiment, the signal sent to the VMS 18 is an in-band signal generatedby the telephone terminal 16 automatically in response to userinteraction or an actual code entered by the user, wherein the code isrecognized by the VMS 18 as a signal that the telephone terminal 16 hasbeen answered. In response, the VMS 18 may stop recording, as well ascommunicate with the switch 14 to effectively transfer the call to aconnection between the switch 14 and the telephone terminal 16 (step G).This avoids wasting resources of the VMS 18 by not connecting the callthrough the VMS 18 but directly through the switch 14. The caller anduser will continue their call. In this embodiment, there is no need forthe switch 14 and the telephone terminal 16 to have the ability tocommunicate with each other to trigger initiation of the speakerchannel.

Alternatively, the switch 14 does not have to recognize that the callintended for the telephone terminal 16 is from the VMS 18. The telephoneterminal 16 may be configured to recognize calls from the VMS 18, andautomatically open the speaker channel upon receiving calls from the VMS18. Further, the telephone terminal 16 will ignore incoming calls thatare not from the VMS 18, and as such, the switch 14 will forward suchincoming calls to the VMS 18. In this alternative embodiment, the VMS 18may be configured to provide additional caller identificationinformation pertaining to the originator of the incoming call, inaddition to any identifying information for the VMS 18, such that thetelephone terminal 16 can recognize the call from the VMS 18 whileproviding caller identification information for the original caller.

With reference to FIG. 4, an active call screening technique isillustrated, wherein a user must interact with the telephone terminal 16prior to being able to listen to messages being left in the VMS 18.Initially, the switch 14 receives an incoming call intended for thetelephone terminal 16 (step A) and attempts to connect the call to thetelephone terminal 16 (step B). After a prescribed number of rings, thecall is forwarded to the VMS 18 by the switch 14 (step C). At thispoint, the user will know that the incoming call is likely beingforwarded to the VMS 18, which is concurrently taking the necessarysteps to answer the forwarded call and record a voicemail message. Ifthe user wishes to activate call screening in this embodiment, she willactivate the telephone terminal 16 and, upon receipt of a dial tone,dial a service activation code (or feature code) such as *33 for callscreening (step D). The switch 14 will recognize the service activationcode as well as the telephone terminal 16 from which the code wasreceived, and establish a conference between the call forwarded to theVMS 18 and the telephone terminal 16 in response to the serviceactivation code being dialed. If the user decides to take the call basedon listening to the message being left, a signal (in-band orout-of-band) is sent to the switch 14 (step E), which will release theconnection for the forwarded call to the VMS 18. The switch 14 will alsosend a message, such as a cause value message, to the VMS 18 indicatingwhy the connection was released (step F), and the VMS 18 can take thenecessary steps to handle any message fragment left by the caller.Again, the message sent to the VMS 18 may provide instructions forhandling the message fragment, or the VMS 18 may be configured to handlethe message fragment in a defined manner without input from the switch14. The caller and user will continue their call via the conferencepreviously established by the switch 14 until the call is ended.Alternatively, the telephone terminal 16 may be configured toautomatically dial the service activation code on behalf of the userupon receiving any indication that the user has decided to initiate callscreening.

In yet another embodiment as illustrated in FIG. 5, an incoming callintended for the telephone terminal 16 is received by the switch 14(step A), which takes the necessary steps to ring the telephone terminal16 (step B). After a prescribed number of rings, the incoming call isforwarded to the VMS 18 by the switch 14 (step C). While the call isbeing answered by the VMS 18, the user may activate the telephoneterminal 16, and upon receiving a dial tone, can dial a directory numberto initiate call screening (step D). The directory number is a numberassigned to the VMS 18. The switch 14 will receive the dialed number andinitiate a call to the VMS 18 (step E). The VMS 18 will answer theuser's call and recognize that it is currently answering the originalincoming call intended for the user, as well as recognizing that thecurrent call is being received from the user, preferably usingassociated caller ID information from the user and called partyinformation for the original incoming call. In this circumstance, theVMS 18 will effect a conference between the original incoming call andthe call from the user, directly or indirectly, within the VMS 18 orthrough the switch 14, such that a connection between the calls iseffected (step F). During this time, it is preferred that the microphoneof the telephone terminal 16 be turned off or otherwise muted, and thespeaker channel be open, such that the user may listen to the messagebeing left in the VMS 18. Alternatively, the telephone terminal 16 maybe configured to automatically dial the directory number to initiatecall screening upon receiving any indication that the user desires thesame.

If the user decides to take the call, such as by providing an in-band orout-of-band signal such as a special activation code (step G), the VMS18 will receive the signal and take the necessary steps to bridge thetwo calls internally or externally, preferably by instructing the switch14 to provide the necessary connection in order to avoid wastingresources of the VMS 18 (step H). At this point, the VMS 18 will havedropped out of the respective calls if the VMS 18 is not providing thebridge, and will handle any message fragment as desired. The user andcaller may then continue with their call.

With reference to FIG. 6, a block representation of the VMS 18 isillustrated. In general, the VMS 18 will include a control system 20associated with sufficient memory 22 to store the requisite software 24to provide the functionality described above. The control system 20 willalso be associated with one or more telephony interfaces 26 to providevoice and signaling between the telephone network 12, the switch 14, andany other necessary call processing or serving entities.

FIG. 7 provides a block representation of a telephone terminal 16according to one embodiment of the present invention. The telephoneterminal 16 will preferably include a communication interface 28 capableof directly or indirectly establishing communications with the switch14. The communication interface 28 is operably associated with a controlsystem 30 having the requisite memory 32 and software 34 to facilitateoperation as described above. The control system 30 will operate tocontrol a microphone 36, speaker 40, keypad 42, and display 44 toeffectively facilitate calls and allow any necessary user input toinitiate calls, answer calls, or provide special feature activationcodes as described. In select embodiments, the control system 30 willoperate to activate the speaker 40 independently of the microphone 36,such that the user can listen to voicemail messages being left at theVMS 18 without concern for the caller hearing the user, since themicrophone 36 is deactivated. If a call is taken, the microphone 36 isthen activated to support bi-directional communications. The speakerchannel is formed by any necessary electronics to provide information tothe telephone terminal's connection to be amplified and provided to theuser via the speaker 40. Those skilled in the art will recognize thevarious control techniques for providing the above-describedfunctionality.

Turning now to FIG. 8, a block representation of a switch 14 isillustrated. The switch 14 is represented generically and is intended tocover the logical functionality of land-based and mobile switchingsystems, packet-based or circuit-switched, which include all control forcall server-based functions. These switches 14 may be implemented in avariety of ways using different equipment types, such as Nortel NetworksLimited's DMS-100 local switching system. The switch 14 typicallyincludes a switching fabric module 46, a computing module 48, includingstorage software 50, a subscriber/base station interface 52, a networkinterface 54, and an operations/administration and maintenance (OA & M)module 56. The switching fabric 46 may comprise logical and physicalswitches for interconnecting the subscriber/base station interface 52with the remainder of the telephone network 12 or VMS 18 through thenetwork interface 54. Depending on a land-based or wireless embodiment,the subscriber/base station interface 52 will either directly supportsubscribers through subscriber lines or will support base stations,which facilitate wireless communications with mobile devices. Asillustrated, the computing module 48 controls circuit-switchedcommunications via the switching fabric 46 and is capable of providingtraditional intelligent network monitoring and functions. Thefunctionality of the switch 14 may be provided in various levels ofintegration. In select embodiments, the software 50 of the computingmodule 48 is modified to facilitate the above-described functionality,by cooperating directly or indirectly with the telephone terminal 16 andVMS 18.

From the above, the present invention allows a user to effectivelyscreen calls when using a hosted voicemail system, and accept thosecalls as desired. The various embodiments provide viable alternativesdepending on the desires of the service provider and willingness of theuser to participate in or initiate call screening. Those skilled in theart will recognize the applicability of the present invention to bothcircuit-switched and packet-based telephone systems, in both wired andwireless environments.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the preferred embodiments of the present invention. All suchimprovements and modifications are considered within the scope of theconcepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

1-32. (canceled)
 33. A method for providing voicemail services,comprising: a first server receiving a first call from a first terminaldirected to a user of a second terminal; in response to the first call,the first server initiating a second call to the second terminal,wherein the first server is configured to provide informationidentifying the first terminal to the second terminal; the first serverrecording at least a portion of a message being left by the firstterminal; and the first server allowing the second terminal to monitorthe message being left by the first terminal, wherein during monitoringthe second terminal is configured to receive audio from the firstterminal, and wherein, if the user provides user input, the first serveris configured to connect the first terminal and the second terminal. 34.The method of claim 33, wherein the first call is directed to the firstserver instead of the second terminal.
 35. The method of claim 33,wherein the second terminal is configured to ring in response to thesecond call.
 36. The method of claim 33, wherein said allowing thesecond terminal to monitor the message being left by the first terminalcomprises sending a first signal to the second terminal to open aspeaker channel.
 37. The method of claim 33, wherein said allowing thesecond terminal to monitor the message being left by the first terminalis performed in response to the second terminal not answering the secondcall.
 38. The method of claim 33, further comprising: the first serverconnecting the first terminal and the second terminal in response to thesecond terminal answering the second call.
 39. The method of claim 33,further comprising: in response to the user input to the second terminalwhile the message is being left by the first terminal, the first serverconnecting the first terminal and the second terminal.
 40. A computerserver for providing voicemail services, wherein the computer servercomprises: communication circuitry, configured to perform communicationover a network; and processing hardware coupled to the communicationcircuitry, wherein the processing hardware is configured to operate withthe communication circuitry to: receive a first call from a firstterminal directed to a user of a second terminal; in response to thefirst call, initiate a second call to the second terminal, wherein thecomputer server is configured to provide information identifying thefirst terminal to the second terminal; record at least a portion of amessage being left by the first terminal; and allow the second terminalto monitor the message being left by the first terminal, wherein duringmonitoring the second terminal is configured to receive audio from thefirst terminal, and wherein, if the user provides user input, thecomputer server is configured to connect the first terminal and thesecond terminal.
 41. The computer server of claim 40, wherein the firstcall is directed to the computer server instead of the second terminal.42. The computer server of claim 40, wherein the second terminal isconfigured to ring in response to the second call.
 43. The computerserver of claim 40, wherein during monitoring the second terminal isconfigured to receive audio from the first terminal in a uni-directionalmanner, wherein the user input is to establish bi-directionalcommunication with the first terminal, and wherein, after connecting thefirst terminal and the second terminal, the second terminal isconfigured to communicate with the first terminal in a bi-directionalmanner.
 44. The computer server of claim 40, wherein said allowing thesecond terminal to monitor the message being left by the first terminalis performed in response to the second terminal not answering the secondcall.
 45. The computer server of claim 40, wherein the processinghardware is further configured to connect the first terminal and thesecond terminal in response to the second terminal answering the secondcall.
 46. A first terminal, configured to receive voicemail servicesfrom a first server, wherein the terminal comprises: communicationcircuitry, configured to perform communication over a network; an audioinput; an audio output; and processing hardware coupled to thecommunication circuitry, wherein the processing hardware is configuredto operate with the communication circuitry to: in response to a firstcall from a second terminal directed to a user of the first terminal,receive a second call from the first server, including informationidentifying the second terminal; receive and provide audio of an audiomessage of the second terminal using the audio output, wherein the audiois received from the first server while the first server is recording atleast a portion of the audio message from the second terminal; wherein,in response to the user providing user input while the first terminalprovides audio of the audio message, the first server is configured toconnect the first terminal and the second terminal.
 47. The firstterminal server of claim 46, wherein the first call is directed to thefirst server instead of the first terminal.
 48. The first terminalserver of claim 46, wherein the first terminal is configured to ring inresponse to the second call.
 49. The first terminal server of claim 46,wherein the audio of the audio message comprises communication with thesecond terminal in a uni-directional manner, wherein the user input isto establish bi-directional communication with the second terminal, andwherein, after connecting the first terminal and the second terminal,the first terminal is configured to communicate with the second terminalin a bi-directional manner.
 50. The first terminal server of claim 46,wherein receiving and providing the audio of the audio message isperformed in response to the user of the first terminal not answeringthe second call.
 51. The first terminal server of claim 46, wherein thefirst server is further configured to connect the first terminal and thesecond terminal in response to user input received to the first terminalto answer the second call.